Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-03
LICENSING GAMBLING,


been gratifed by the introduction Of a
bill in the Legislature providing for the
issuance Of licenses to carry on gaming
Three-quarters Of the money for licenses
is to go into the county treasures and one
quarter to the State. Gaming is to be
conducted only on upper floors and in
single rooms.
Exactly why limitation as to locality or
number of rooms should attach, is not
clear. If gambling is to be given rein at
all, let it be a loose one. If we are to
have gaming made lawful, then compel it
to be practiced where every one can OBJ
serve who are its deyotees. Landlords
having lower floors to rent should. not be
so unjustly..discriminated against as is pro-
posed in the bill in question. As the bill
permits any games of chance by any device
whatever, it runs afoul of the Constitution
prohibiting lottery gambling. What other
reasons will be advanced for the passage of
the bill, than that threadbare and false
enc that gaming cannot be suppressed"
we do not know, nor can we conceive. 1t
viii not be concluded that it is a business
of moral character, or tending to benefit
society. 1t must stand, if at all, there
fore, upon the proposition that present
gaming laws are not everywhere strictly
enforced. But they can be, and are in
many places. In none of the southern
colonies is gambling tolerated. 1t has
beerrprovep, despite here and there eva
sions, that, with honest and efficient Off
GERS, it can be suppressed in Sacra-
nento where the spirit of gaming for
years had its stronghold.
Che moral sense of every community
opposed to the vice can secure its suppress
sion. But because that moral sense is not
everywhere sufficiently courageous to
dom" the evil, is not tenable argument
IN support of the proposition to remove
the condemnation of the law. The killing
OF deer in certain seasons is prohibited by
ious that the law is not enforced in all the
counties; that thousands of deer are
slaughtered for the hides and the carcasses
Left to decay, yet no one proposes the re-
peal of that class of "game laws" and the
removal of the obstacle to the extinction
Of the deer family. Thievery prevails de
spite the laws, but no one suggests the
abolition of the code defining and condemn
ing larceny. Drunkenness is an evil, but
no one proposes to cure it by giving the
victims of appetite the more to crafty it.
Of course the bill viii not pass. Outside
OF Kentucky, Louisiana and Nevada, no
Legislature could be convened sufficiently
lost to shame to repeal laws against gam
ing. One Of the San Francisco journals
assures us that the measure, is heavily
backed by money, and has many friends
among other than gambling circles, Prob
ably; it has money hacking certainly, and
some approve it who abhor gambling. But
these reason from false premises, aud JUS
tifv an i'll because il is so strong as to
wrestle with the law They bury convic-
tions and right in the grave of despair,
because they cannot at once choke the life
cut of the monster confronting them.
Great reforms are never of sudden accom-
plishment; they grow, and gain strength
as they grow. We have come up out of
the pioneer era, when no restraint was put
upon gaming, to the period in which it is
made an outlaw and driven to hiding.
Shall we now turn hack2 Those who
think we have not progressed in the anti
gambling reform, forget or are ignorant of
the history of the country, and oblivieus of
the advancement of society in this State
Let the friends of the measure rally
their forces, for, assuming so monstrous a
calamity possible as a majority vote for it
in either House, two-thiris vote will be
thereafter necessary, as no self-respecting
Governpr-and we apprehcnd we have one
IN Californ;a-wiil lend himself to the
gamblers and their infamous scheme 10y
approving the bill.